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Lucky strike turns a dark cloud into a star

AN INKY blob of gas and dust called Barnard 68 may give us one of the most detailed glimpses of how stars can be born.

The cloud, about 500 light years from us, is very frigid and so dark that it blots out background stars. It also has an extension of gas and dust to its lower left.

Observations by Markus Nielbock of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany, back up a theory that this extension is a separate cloud that is striking Barnard 68 like a slow-motion bullet (arxiv.org/abs/1208.4512).

The impact should cause the larger cloud to collapse. Barnard 68 will then become so dense and hot that it will shine like a sun, albeit a star powered by gravity for the first few million years.

The “bullet” is also making the cloud twirl, so a disc of planet-forming material seems likely to gather around the newborn star.